Featured

FFA Cup preview: Wanderers v Roar

​Two former A-League grand final combatants from 2014 meet for a spot in the round of 16 in the 2015 Westfield FFA Cup. This could well be the pick of the night's four games with terrific quality across both squads.

John Aloisi’s first competitive game in charge of Roar pits him against good mate Tony Popovic and his new-look Wanderers. Given the fact these two sides also meet in the opening round of the Hyundai A-League in early October, this adds a little more spice to this Westfield FFA Cup Round of 32 clash.

For Roar, it’s been a much more settled off-season – on the field at least – with the core of last year’s squad still at the club. Aloisi will hope that’s an advantage at this stage of their pre-season.

Their encouraging performance against Liverpool in July (and a win over Villareal six weeks earlier) should mean Roar will be full of confidence for a trip to Sydney’s west.

And expect midfielder Luke Brattan to play much higher up the park – Aloisi has stated this will be one of his first tactical changes.

At this stage of the competition last year Wanderers were embarrassingly sent packing from the FFA Cup by SA PS4 NPL club Adelaide City.

But this is very much a new squad at Popovic’s disposal with a host of players leaving at the end of last season, with many fresh faces coming in including a trio of Spaniards.

How quickly Mitch Nichols, Scott Jamieson, Scott Neville, Jacob Pepper and others can settle, could determine which way this tie goes.

WHAT THEY SAY

Dean Bouzanis (Western Sydney Wanderers FC goalkeeper)

“The boss Poppa [coach Tony Popovic] he's massive on making sure every game we go out there with a winning mentality, a professional attitude and that we start well no matter if it's FFA Cup, A-League or a friendly.”

John Aloisi (Brisbane Roar coach)

"It is important that we get in these quality games because we are still working on the way we are playing and our fitness. We need to make sure that the players are sharp and understand exactly what we are asking them to do in terms of our playing style and structures.”